Joe Smith is a die-hard Los Angeles Lakers fan who’s owned very expensive season tickets for over 50 years. He’s not only fed up with the team’s play on the court, but also angry with the organization’s questionable marketing tactics (to say nothing of an apparent lack of a cohesive plan going forward). Per the LA Times:

The former record mogul has four season seats on the baseline next to the Lakers bench. He has held those seats since the team arrived in Los Angeles. He has become as much of a fixture under the basket as the ballboys and Laker girls. No single ticket holder has endured longer, and certainly no single fan has invested more.

For 54 years, Joe Smith has loved the Lakers graciously, gratefully and unconditionally.

But then, two weeks ago, nearing the conclusion of the most rudderless, ridiculous Lakers season in history, Smith received a letter from the Lakers asking that he renew his season tickets two months earlier than in previous seasons.

That’s long before anyone will have any idea about the makeup of the future roster and coaching staff. That also enables the Lakers to collect an extra two months of interest on Smith’s $400,000-plus investment. All for a team that probably will finish with the franchise’s worst record since it came to Los Angeles.

After all this time, Joe Smith is finally considering dumping his tickets.

“This is so out of line,” said Smith. ”The organization has become toxic from top to bottom.”

“I can stand losing, but not the way they are losing,” said Smith. “Not with a coach who has an enormous wave of sentiment against him … not with all the confusion in the front office … it’s become a pathetic operation.”

The final straw for Smith was the letter, sent to the owners of the 14,500 season tickets, announcing the new final ticket renewal deadline is May 19. That is not only much earlier than in previous years, but it is also one day before the NBA draft lottery, smack in the middle of what could be a coaching search, and nearly two months before the Lakers will have a chance to begin signing free agents.

“For those of us who have been with them for 54 years, in good times and bad times, this is unconscionable,” said Smith. “They’re not going to be good for another couple of years at least, there’s times they look like a Developmental League team, it’s really no fun, yet they are arrogantly demanding that we renew earlier and hold our money even longer?”

When contacted for this story, Lakers officials note that they are not increasing the ticket prices — which only means for every home game, Smith still pays $2,750 per seat and $200 for valet parking.

“The world is changing, and as it does, so do the way companies, and not just sports teams, do business,” said John Black, team spokesman. “We need more time to implement new technology for the upgrade and renewal process, and we’re agreeing to the league’s demands that we fall in line with all other NBA team renewal deadlines.”

“I really hate to say this, but right now, you want good and entertaining basketball in this town, you go to the Clippers,” Smith said quietly, almost in a whisper.

As everyone knows by now, last night President Obama announced that Osama Bin Laden was located and killed. While some people took the streets to celebrate and others slept through the late-breaking news, many took to Twitter to air out their thoughts on the matter—including more than a handful of NBA players. As you’d expect, their reactions ranged the whole gamut—from conspiracy talk to congragulatory praise. Here are some of tweets that caught our eye.

The toughest thing about seeing the Hawks get drilled by the Magic in the Eastern Conference Semifinals, was remembering that it’s the Eastern Conference Semifinals. I felt sick last night, upset that the season, which had such promise and so many great moments, ended with such a thud. I had to take a step back and remind myself that the Hawks are still a work in progress, that rebuilding doesn’t happen overnight.

Look, the Magic are 31-5 in their last 36 games. (You didn’t realize that, did you?) The Magic are hotter than hot right now and just rolling teams. Charles Barkley said last night that the Hawks getting drilled by the Magic wasn’t Mike Woodson’s fault — paraphrasing here, which is a dangerous thing to do to Chuck’s words, but he basically said the Hawks just didn’t have enough good players to beat Orlando. Maybe he’s right.

Counting the preseason, Orlando was 4-1 against the Hawks coming into the Playoffs, winning by an average of 26 points. In four games in the Playoffs, Orlando beat Atlanta by an average of 26 points. The Magic handled Atlanta all season, and last season too. Look at all the moves Orlando and Cleveland made last summer. The Hawks? They traded for Jamal Crawford, who helped them win six more games than they won last season. And they went hard after Joe Smith, signed him, and then played him a total of five minutes in the entire Orlando series.

Maybe the Hawks didn’t have enough good players to beat Orlando four times in seven games. After all, as of now, Orlando’s won 28 of their last 31, they’ve won 31 of their last 36, and they’ve won a total of 14 in a row. They’re the best team in the NBA. But losing four times by an average of 26 points per game? Well, it doesn’t reflect well on the Hawks players or Mike Woodson.

And starting right this minute, there are two huge decisions the Hawks need to make:
1) Do they re-sign Mike Woodson?
2) How much is Joe Johnson worth?

I’ve been saying all season that there’s a distinct possibility Mike Woodson is the type of coach who can get you from 13 wins to 53 wins, but maybe he’s not the coach to get you from 53 wins to the top of the Conference. Maybe a new voice in the locker room could motivate some of the guys to play more consistently, and even galvanize the fans in Atlanta. For a lot of the Hawks players — Josh Smith, Marvin Williams, Al Horford, Jeff Teague — Woodson’s the only NBA coach they’ve ever had. I like Woody, and I admire his single-minded focus on defense. But a new voice in the locker room (and a new philosophy on the court) could be a relatively inexpensive way for the Hawks to re-energize the entire franchise.

As for Joe, I’m not sure he’s going to get a max contract from any NBA team. He’s 29 years old, didn’t have an incredible Playoffs, and with so many owners struggling to turn a profit, I’m not sure a basement-dwelling team will want to make that significant of an investment.

Last night on “Inside the NBA,” Charles Barkley said Joe Johnson can’t be the best player on your team, which is incorrect — Joe Johnson can definitely be the best player on your team; after all, Joe Johnson is the best player on the Hawks and they won 53 games. But what we now know is that Joe Johnson can’t be the best player on a team that uses the offensive system the Hawks use and expects to be considered a championship team.

If it was a team that played tough defense and shared the ball and had Joe coming off picks to shoot jumpers? Yeah, maybe Joe could be the best, or one of the best, players on that team. Assuming that’s what Joe wants to do. For the last five years, Mike Woodson’s basically given Joe free rein to do whatever he wants to do on offense, or at least it would appear this way. Maybe Joe wants to go play somewhere where he can continue to be The Man and have the ball in his hands all day on offense. There are teams out there who would consider this an upgrade to their current offense, and after all, the Hawks did manage to win 53 games this year with Joe creating his own shot most of the time.

Joe was Atlanta’s highest-paid player at almost $15 million this season. And to me, that seems about right. He’s a very, very good player, but not a max contract player. The Hawks supposedly offered him $16 million a year last summer, and he turned that down. This time it might seem more realistic.

Besides those issues, there are a couple of other spots the Hawks should upgrade. Most importantly, the Hawks need a point guard. Mike Bibby is now, physically, a back-up point guard, and he’d be a great back-up for the Hawks, logging 12-15 minutes a game. Bibby basically makes the mid-level next season, so his salary isn’t outrageous, and he’d be a nice spot-up shooter, almost like Derek Fisher. But I can’t remember the last time I saw Mike Bibby drive to the basket and shoot a lay-up. Without that threat, teams were able to pressure Bibby the entire game, not to mention single-cover him and take advantage of him defensively. Again, he’d be a tremendous bench player, but the Hawks have to upgrade at the 1. The Hawks could also use a perimeter defender, someone like Raja Bell, who was on the radio in Miami yesterday basically begging the Heat to sign him. I’d take him in a heartbeat to provide the same kind of toughness Matt Barnes gives Orlando. And don’t forget the Hawks also still have the rights to a certain SLAM columnist named Josh Childress, who’s team just lost in the Euroleague Championships.

Hawks GM Rick Sund has a lot to think about. I don’t think the Hawks need an extreme makeover, but it’s no secret that the Hawks have hit some sort of plateau, and something’s gotta give. Of the eight teams that made the Conference Semifinals, seven of them were in the NBA’s top ten in salary. The Hawks were 22nd. The Hawks have done a remarkable job of rebuilding without getting stuck under a lot of terrible contracts. But at some point, if they really want to be able to compete with the NBA’s upper echelon, they’re going to have to spend some money. That doesn’t mean they should be irresponsible with it, but basically, if the Hawks don’t do something this summer, they’re just treading water.

And in the NBA, if you don’t try and make your team better every chance you get, you lose.

I still remember the first time I read “A Season On The Brink,” John Feinstein’s book where he spends a season embedded with Bob Knight and the University of Indiana. I was a kid when I read it, but I was already a basketball fan, and I kept up with hoops mostly by reading SI and the local papers. Then came “Season,” which was something totally different, almost like it was written in a different language. It featured cursing, behind the scenes planning and strategy, rants from Bobby Knight and the trivial day-to-day minutiae any team in any sport endures (riding buses, meetings, etc.).

I recall reading the book and immediately wondering how Feinstein got that kind of access. It was filled with the things most teams worked overtime to keep secret. Why were they comfortable letting this writer have complete access? Ever since I read that book, I’ve wanted to do something similar. What sportswriter hasn’t? So much of writing about sports is almost a duel between the writer and the subject. Writer asks questions, subject gives answers, or at least, tells writer what he wants writer to know. But it’s very rare that anyone completely removes those filters and is totally, 100 percent open and honest.

Since I’ve been at SLAM, I’ve been looking for an opportunity to do something similar. And even though I have a BlackBerry full of contacts around the League, it turns out that NBA teams don’t necessarily want the headache of having a writer snooping around for a couple of days.

A few months ago, when we were kicking around ideas for SLAM issue 135, we knew we wanted to do a team story on the Atlanta Hawks, who were off to their best start in franchise history. Since I’m the resident Hawks expert around these parts, it was my story to do. So I called up Arthur Triche, the Hawks longtime VP of PR, and figured what the heck, I’d pitch him an all-access idea. As much as I know about how the NBA works, I still had so many questions. What are the locker room talks really like? What kind of airplane do these guys fly on? What happens during the down-time? And wouldn’t all of this be something that our readers would be interested in as well?

AT agreed that this sounded cool, so he pitched the idea to Mike Woodson, who, shockingly, also signed off on it, despite some of the things I’ve written in the past about his suits. So, about a month ago, I flew to Atlanta to embed with the Hawks for a back-to-back series at home against the Knicks and then on the road at Dallas.

There is a much longer, much more detailed story about this in the new issue of SLAM (SLAM 136), on newsstands now, so if you like this post, this is just a teaser. For the rest, buy the mag.

Anyway, here’s what I learned along the way:

This was taken in Woodson’s postgame press conference after the Hawks lost at home to the Knicks, 114-107, which made the Hawks 13-6 on the season. Granted, there were extenuating circumstances — Josh Smith was ejected halfway through the second quarter after arguing a call with ref Bob Delaney. Without Smoove, the NBA’s leading shot blocker, guarding the rim, the Knicks ran a steady stream of pick-and-rolls down the Hawks throat, getting easy layups again and again. The feeling in the Hawks locker room following the loss didn’t seem to be one of anger as much as disappointment. Woody began the press conference with, “Defensively, we were nonexistent.”

To Woody’s left, on his Blackberry, is AT (Arthur Triche), probably trying to make a joke about me on Twitter.

After this presser, Woody went back into his office and sat down. AT and I went in with him and AT reminded Woody that I’d be with the team for the next 36 hours. I told Woody that my goal for the next 36 hours was to just stay out his way. I also asked him when he would start thinking about the Mavs game. “I’m thinking about it right now,” he said.

The Knicks game ended around 9:45, and there was a note on the blackboard immediately after that said “11 ON THE PLANE.” Everyone drove their own cars to the charter airport, Atlantic Aviation, which is really just a small building is on the edge of Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. I walked in with 20 minutes to spare, and found Josh Smith relaxing on a couch in the waiting area, talking softly on his cell phone. Everyone in the Hawks traveling party was funneled down a hallway to a small room, where we showed our ID, were checked off a list, then our bags were all checked by hand and we were each wanded down. It was thorough, and it took about as long as it takes to enter a nightclub, less than a minute per person. Once cleared, we walked out onto the asphalt tarmac and a few dozen yards to the airplane, an Airbus A319. We boarded it on one of those old-school metal staircases that they roll up to the doors.

Most airlines use the A319 on smaller routes, where they manage to squeeze 67 seats on board. This plane, however, has been fitted entirely with first class seats, four across each row, with extra legroom between each row. It was a Delta plane — the Hawks use a charter service run by Delta. I did not, however, receive SkyMiles for either flight.

The players settled in the first few rows of seats, the coaches, trainers and equipment staff were in the middle section, and the broadcasters, AT and I took the seats in the back. I sat across from Hawks TV broadcaster Bob Rathbun and in front of radio voice Steve Holman. Dominique Wilkins was just behind us. As we boarded, food was laid out in the back of the plane; I grabbed a turkey slider and a couple of potato skins loaded with roasted chicken. Hawks TV sideline reporter (and Louisiana native) James “Big Country” Verrett generously allowed me to use some of the Tabasco sauce he’d brought along with him.

Just after 11:00 p.m., the lights dimmed and the plane took off, a little unexpectedly. The general vibe on board throughout the flight was subdued, the loss to New York still fresh in everyone’s minds. The players sitting up front watched movies on their laptops or quietly played cards. Was there gambling? I don’t know. I never walked up to the front of the plane because I felt like even though the Hawks had let me into the inner circle, there still needed to be some limitations — I know a lot of the Hawks players and am friendly with many of them, but I am not and never will be one of them. Also, if I was going to walk up to the front of the plane I would have had to walk past Mike Woodson, and I’m a little scared of him.

We landed in Dallas at 1:20 AM Atlanta time, 12:20 AM in Dallas. As we landed, I realized I had no idea which airport we were actually at. We filed down a metal staircase out into a cold night and boarded a bus parked just feet from the plane. Everyone was bleary-eyed and quiet.

As I climbed aboard the bus, I reloaded a box score on my phone and saw that Kobe Bryant had nailed a 27-footer at the buzzer to beat Atlanta’s division rival Miami Heat. I blurted this out (“Kobe scored!”), and Coach Woodson, leaning back in the bus’s front seat, jolted forward. “What? Kobe scored?”

“Apparently so, Coach,” I said. “All I know is the Lakers won and Miami lost.” Woodson sunk back into the seat, and I swear he looked a little happier than he did a few seconds earlier.

I found an empty seat next to a seat filled with someone’s luggage. Assistant coach Tyrone Hill turned around from directly in front of me and grabbed the bags. “Man, I’m sorry about that. Let me move this…” I assured him it wasn’t a problem; I only needed one seat, unlike most of these giants (such as Hill himself). “No, no,” he insisted, “I was being selfish.”

At 1:00 AM Dallas time, which was 2:00 AM by everyone’s body clocks, the bus pulled up at a side door at the Rosewood Crescent Hotel, a luxury spot not far from the American Airlines Center. Most teams have a shootaround at the arena the morning of a game to get used to the rims and the atmosphere, but because of our late arrival and player fatigue — not to mention a daytime hockey game at the AAC — Woodson instead planned a morning breakfast meeting for 11:00 AM Dallas time, 10 hours from now.

A table was set up in the lobby covered with envelopes, with each member of the Hawks traveling party’s name printed on the envelope. Inside each envelope was a room key and list of which players were in which rooms. I looked for an envelope marked “Lang Whitaker” but instead found one that read “Lane Wittaker.” Either someone couldn’t spell or the Hawks were hazing me already. There are no groupies within eyesight. (Believe me, I looked.)

I hopped onto an elevator with Josh Smith, Al Horford, Jamal Crawford, Marvin Williams and Jeff Teague. When we got to my floor, I made a move to get off the elevator but found my path blocked by Teague. “Move, rook,” commanded Josh Smith. “Come on, let Lang off. Sorry Lang, he’s a rookie.”

As Teague obliged, I feel like adding that I was a rookie to all of this as well.

The one thing I didn’t want to be was late, so I got up extra early the next morning and walked over to a nearby Starbucks and grabbed a huge liquid breakfast. Came back to the hotel and ran into AT who was on the internet in the business center, printing out articles about the Hawks and the Mavs to give to Woody and the coaches. He’s on hoopshype.com in the picture above. That’s my man-sized coffee on the desk.

AT and I went over to the breakfast meeting in the hotel ballroom and arrived thirty minutes early to find Mike Woodson huddled with assistant coaches Ty Hill, Bob Bender and Jim Todd, as well as Hawks video coordinator Luke Steele. (Atlanta’s lead assistant coach, Larry Drew, was away from the team for a few days following a death in the family.) The coaches were watching various plays from the Knicks game, pointing out bad examples of Atlanta’s play, as Steele isolated those moments, captioned them and compiled them into something of a lowlight reel. (They also compiled a separate highlight reel.)

At the other end of the ballroom, a huge breakfast buffet was set up. The first player to arrive was Zaza Pachulia. Loved that he was wearing the complimentary hotel slippers.

Josh Smith grabbed breakfast and came and sat down next to me. (To Josh’s left is Atlanta’s strength coach, Pete Radulovic.) Smoove poured an entire mini-bottle of ketchup on his home fries, then mentioned that it was his birthday. I asked J-Smoove how old he was, and he said he had just turned 24, which blew my mind — he’s in his sixth year in the NBA!

Radulovic picked up the Dallas Morning News sports section and flipped over to the Mavs box score from the previous night, where they were blown out on the road in Memphis, 98-82. Pete pointed out Dirk Nowitzki went just 7-for-22 from the floor.

“Uh-oh,” said Smoove, who already knew he’d be spending much of the coming evening chasing Nowitzki. “That’s not good news for me.”

A few minutes after 11:00 AM, with all the players in attendance, Woodson, wearing a gray Hawks sweatsuit and sneakers, stood and asked for everyone’s attention. He launched into a dissection of the Hawks poor defense against the Knicks that included phrases such as “positioning,” “help defense,” “run and jumps,” “our greens,” “back screens” “nail guy,” “hard fouls” and “talking.” At one point he mentioned that the Hawks gave up 29 layups against the Knicks, repeated it and then paused for effect. Everyone in the room knew they gave up many — too many — layups to the Knicks, but hearing the number 29 drove it home and grabbed everyone’s attention, if not their pride.

“This team has a chance to do something special if you believe in each other,” Woodson said. “If you feel like what we’re trying to do on the court isn’t going to work, speak up! I have zero ego as a coach, none. If you think you see something that’s going to work better than what we’re trying to do, speak up! Say something to me! But what I’m telling you guys is that if you guys will just consistently do what we’re asking you to do on defense, we’ll win games. I don’t give a shit about the offense; you guys can score more than enough points to win games. The offense isn’t the problem. But you have to get stops on defense, and if you’ll listen to what we’re telling you, I promise you’ll get stops. The shit works, okay? The shit works, but you guys just have to have the pride and the heart to buy into it and do what we’re asking you to do every time down the court.”

Woodson plopped back into his chair and took a sip of water. And you wonder why NBA coaches are all consistently hoarse throughout the season. Steele fired up the laptop and plays from the Knicks games start cycled through on the TV as Woodson narrated what went right and what went wrong. (“That’s not a trap, Al Horford. I don’t know what that is, but it’s not a trap.”) Watching the tape, Woodson didn’t focus so much on ball defense but off-the-ball defense, the two or three guys across the court who don’t seem to be initially involved in defending the ball put generally come into play later in the possession. The Hawks defensive schemes require at least two or three reads and reactions from the Hawks players, and if one guys makes the wrong read, it throws everyone else’s assignments into turmoil. As the tape rolled, assistant coach Bender mentioned the need for “gradual adjustments to the off-ball defense,” and assistant coach Todd reminded them that when mismatches occurred, the Hawks have lineups versatile enough to handle the mismatches. Occasionally a player would quietly call out “My fault” when they’d been caught on tape blowing an assignment.

The tape ended and Tyrone Hill stood and went to the dry erase board, which listed the Dallas lineup and the players the Hawks would use to defend each guy. He went player by player, mentioning things like trying to make Jason Kidd a jump shooter or which way Shawn Marion likes to turn with the ball, then spent a few minutes on Mavs rookie Rodrigue Beaubois, who’d been starting for Dallas, though most of the Hawks had never seen him play. The most time was devoted to Dirk Nowitzki, and the coaches peppered Josh Smith with tips and reminders on how best to defend the former MVP.

A few minutes past noon, Woodson stood and faced the team to end the meeting. “Guys, I’ve been in this League as a coach and a player for 28 years. I won one title with Detroit a few years ago, but I’d like to win some more, and I know all of you guys would, too. Look, your clock is ticking. My clock is ticking. We’re not going to be around this League forever. This team is possibly good enough to win a title. You guys who weren’t here before this year, I’ve never been able to say that before this season. But you guys could do something really special. You just have to trust each other and do what you’re supposed to do out there on the floor. The shit works, you just have to execute and trust.”

“OK, the first bus is leaving for the arena at 5:45, second bus at 6:15. Now go get some sleep and I’ll see you tonight.”

As you can sorta tell from the photo above, I spent the meeting cowering behind Jason Collins, furiously writing down notes in my notepad and trying to stay out of Woodson’s line of sight, because I didn’t want him to see me and alter his approach for my sake. The players seemed tuned in, attentive.

When the meeting ended, I needed to find a drugstore and stock up on travel supplies. A doorman at the hotel told me there was a drugstore down the street, so I set out walking. It was down the street alright — about two miles down the street. If nothing else I got some exercise. Spent a few hours in my room catching up on my notes, and then hung out for a few hours watching the Florida/Alabama SEC Championship Game with a friend of mine who lives in Dallas. Around 5:00 PM, I checked out of Lane Wittaker’s room.

At exactly 5:45, the bus chugged away from the hotel and toward the arena, which was just a mile or so away. The Hawks bus pulled up underneath the American Airlines Center to a dark loading dock. Two security guards waited at a folding table, and each member of the Hawks traveling party had their bag checked by security and was wanded down before entering the arena, myself included. We went through a door and emerged in the long tunnel that runs a ring underneath the stands, and then filed into the locker room, where their uniforms had already been laid out by equipment manager Zac Walsh, who came to the arena during the hockey game to prepare.

Everyone had their luggage with them, I guess because nobody wanted to leave it unguarded under the bus during the game. Zac grabbed my carry-on bag from me and put it on a cart with a bunch of other bags and took it into the locker room ahead of me. Maybe 30 minutes later I realized I wasn’t sure where my bag was, so I asked Zac, and he wasn’t sure where it was either. We poked around and I opened the door to the coach’s office and found Mike Woodson sitting there alone, my bag under his chair.

At least I knew nobody would mess with it.

The visitor’s locker room in Dallas is fronted by two smaller rooms, one that the Hawks training staff used to stretch players, treat injuries and tape ankles, and another room that the coaches shared as their office. The players sat in front of their lockers and started the process of leaving tickets for friends and families, then changed into their uniforms and warm-ups. A TV in the locker room was turned to the end of the SEC Championship game, and the players get a laugh out of seeing some of the Alabama guys on their sideline mocking the “Gator bite” arms sign to the Florida fans. Al Horford, a proud Florida grad, stoically got dressed in front of his locker. He was not happy.

I ended up walking out to the court alongside Joe Smith, and I asked him how he spent the afternoon. “During back-to-backs, I always try to get sleep,” he said. “I watched some of that UNC/Kentucky basketball game, and I watched some of that Florida/Alabama game, but I stayed in bed all afternoon and slept on and off.”

I walked out courtside and found my seat just behind the scorer’s table, and as the players warmed up, I sat there and checked email and made notes. At one point I glanced up and noticed Marvin Williams and Joe Johnson signing autographs. It was almost strange to see, because when you spend so much much time with them, you see them as normal, regular people. It’s easy to forget they’re heroes to thousands of other people.

After the media was herded out of the locker room, the players returned — either from shooting on the floor, or from the trainer’s room, or from chapel — and took seats in front of their lockers. They sipped water, looked over stat sheets. A video projector was hooked up to a laptop, and a screen was unrolled in the front of the room. A clock on the wall counted down until tip-off. Coach Hill stood before a list of the Dallas roster on the erase board and again went through it player by player, as Woodson stopped and added things he’d noticed about each guy. (Woody later told me he’d spent the day in his room watching tape of the Mavs.) When they got to Dirk, Woodson said, “Smoove, when they pick for him, you’ve got to get in his chest and go through the picks. Fight through them however you can.”

“This is what they like to open the game with,” Woodson said, before playing a video clip of Dallas running a pick-and-alley-oop for Beaubois, who caught and finished with an impressive reverse dunk. The players all “ooh”ed when the dunk played. Woodson ran the play over and over. “Mike Bibby,” Woody said, “you have to get around that screen. Get up over it, don’t let him through.”

Bibby suggested he go behind the pick so it would be easier to catch up to Beaubois before he got a head of steam going toward the basket. “Do it however you think you can do it,” Woodson agreed.

There was no “Win one for the Gipper” speech, just more talk about how to best defend Dallas, and then Woodson said, “Let’s go to work.” The players clapped and gathered in the center of the room, where they all reached their hands into the huddle and in unison said the Lord’s Prayer. On “Amen,” they turned and ran out to the court for the game.

Time to go to work.

As the game started, I realized I hadn’t heard Woodson talk about offense much at all — he’d been preaching defense, defense, defense for 24 hours. Even before the opening tip, Dallas coach Rick Carlisle threw Atlanta a curve, electing to start Jason Terry instead of Beaubois. So much for all that preparation.

As “Welcome To The Jungle” blasted over the PA system, and as former Hawk (and Dallas native) Spud Webb settled into a courtside seat, the ball was tossed up into the air and Dallas won the tip. Dallas set up for a pick-and-roll with Jason Terry and Dirk Nowitzki, but Marvin Williams stepped in and stole the ball, bringing a grin to Woodson’s face. The Hawks jumped ahead to a 9-2 lead, with Marv adding another steal, before Dallas stormed back to make it 10-10. The Hawks then reeled off 9 straight points to go up 19-10, before Josh Smith picked up his second foul with 3:54 left in the first quarter, sending him to the bench.

The Hawks weren’t shooting the ball particularly well, but they were making Dallas shoot jump shots and sealing off the drives that killed them a night earlier against New York. After one, the Hawks were up 27-19.

At the beginning of the second quarter, ref Bennie Adams whistled an illegal screen on Drew Gooden, and Mavs coach Rick Carlisle, who was pacing the sideline just in front of where I was sitting, exploded.

A disbelieving smile on his face, Carlisle bellowed, “His base was too wide? What does that mean?” I don’t know, either, coach.

The Hawks were sitting on a 41-29 lead with 6:50 remaining in the first half, when suddenly they went cooler than cool (ice cold!). Over the next 6:50, the Hawks scored exactly 1 point, missing 14 consecutive field goal attempts. It was a stunning display, and even though Woodson called timeouts and drew up plays to break the Hawks out of their funk, they couldn’t get anything to drop. Still, they keep working on defense, and they held Dallas to 2-for-9 shooting from the floor over that stretch. The Mavs made a few free throws, and at halftime, thanks to their defense, the Hawks were clinging to a 41-40 lead.

The two teams played relatively evenly throughout the second half, and the Hawks managed to stay just ahead of Dallas down the stretch. Joe Johnson took over offensively, hitting a variety of jumpers, keeping Atlanta in front of Dallas. Joe Smith, who was averaging just minutes a game coming into this one, ended up playing 19 minutes, guarding Dirk for long stretches in crunch time and grabbing huge rebounds, plus sinking a baseline jumper to put Atlanta up 5. I guess that rest paid off.

Twice in the last few minutes Dallas ran a pick-and-roll and managed to get Dirk Nowitzki the ball with Mike Bibby guarding him, but both times Dallas couldn’t take advantage of the mismatch. Down 3 with about 10 seconds to go, Dallas ran a play to get Dirk a shot from the wing, but Josh Smith jumped the pass and tipped the ball loose, and Nowitzki was called for a kicked ball.

On the ensuing inbound play, the ball was briefly loose and Al Horford appeared to commit a backcourt violation, but no call was made and the Hawks coasted to the win, 80-75, moving to 14-6 on the year. Joe Johnson finished with 31 points and Marvin Williams grabbed an eye-popping 15 rebounds, as the Hawks forced Dallas into 16 turnovers while holding them to a season-low 75 points.

After the game, Mavs guard Jason Terry told the media, “We just couldn’t find any way to get through their defense. They’re long and athletic. They kept us out of the paint.”

As soon as the game ended, the Hawks sprinted back into their locker room, where everyone was all smiles. I walked into the locker room alongside Coach Hill, and said to him, “Good thing you guys prepared so much for Beaubois, huh?” (Beaubois ended up playing all of 8 seconds.) Hill laughed and said, “Man, it’s the NBA. You prepare for everything and then just roll with it.”

The Hawks players chattered about the backcourt violation that may or may not have been—Horford honestly didn’t know if he touched the ball or if Shawn Marion had touched it last before the ball went into the backcourt. Coach Woodson removed his jacket and walked to the front of the locker room. He asked for everyone’s attention, and the players sat and started unlacing their hightops and strapping ice to their ankles.

“Guys, great win,” Woodson rasped. “Remember what I said? You can win playing defense! We struggled with the offense but your defense was terrific.”

“The shit works!” blurted out Teague, cracking up the entire room.

“That’s right, it does, it works,” Woodson said, smiling. “Alright guys, let’s get home. You’ve got tomorrow off, and then we’ll come back in on Monday and get back to work. No more let ups, guys!”

The room erupted in applause, and Teague, shirtless, stood and launched into a surprisingly rousing rendition of the Stevie Wonder version of “Happy Birthday,” as the players all clapped along. “Do the stanky leg!” Woodson yelled, and the room dissolved into laughter.

After showering and talking to the media, everyone hit the postgame spread of barbecue ribs—Al Horford: “Man, I’ve been waiting for this all day…”—and headed out to the bus. Our bags were checked and we were wanded down before we even got on the bus, and then a security person rode the bus with us to the airport. When we boarded the bus, I grabbed a seat up front near the coaches, but had to move to make room for the security person, so I ended up amid the players in the back, sitting behind Marvin Williams. All the guys were talking, joking around.

Fifteen minutes later, the bus pulled up at the same small airport where we arrived not even 24 hours earlier. The bus rolled right out onto the tarmac, and I walked up the metal staircase, where our same plane was awaiting. By midnight Dallas time, we were in the air. After a ninety-minute flight and a one-hour time-change, we touched down in Atlanta at 2:30 a.m.

Back in Atlanta, we all de-planed and walked out to the parking lot, where freezing weather had iced over the windshield on my car (my Dad’s car, actually), so I sat there for 10 minutes and waited for the windshield to defrost, and I thought about the trip. Getting to sit in for the morning meeting, the pregame talk, to hear what they focused on, it all made me infinitely smarter as a basketball journalist. I felt like I learned more about what Woody wants from his team in two days than I had in the previous five years watching him coach every game. And sure, we were riding around on private planes and staying in luxury hotels, but it didn’t do much to diminish what a grind the NBA life can be, especially for the guys logging big minutes night after night. I don’t think I heard Joe Johnson speak the entire time I was around the Hawks, but I suspect it was probably him conserving energy as much as anything else.

At some point after the game but before we headed back to Atlanta, I found myself alone with Mike Woodson, and I congratulated him on the win and thanked him again for letting me tag along.

“Hey,” he said, “after that win, as far as I’m concerned you’ve got an open invite to stay with us.”

First of all, Happy New Year everyone. We got an extra week off here at the SLAM Dome, and Wifey and I managed to finally pay a visit to Italy, which was tremendous. What did I bring back? About ten pounds.

Now, on Gilbert Arenas: I do not know exactly what happened in that locker room. Peter Vecsey, as much as I like and respect his work, doesn’t know exactly what happened in that locker room. But over at Deadspin, they did a good job cobbling together a mostly complete picture of what happened. Read that and come back.

I tend to believe Gilbert here, that this while situation stemmed from what was supposed to just be a dumb joke. If any current NBA player has a history of making dumb jokes, it’s Gilbert.

What part of the media has seized on is the gambling aspect of the story. The money stuff is interesting, and the numbers thrown around — he owed Crittendon $25,000!! Or was it $60,000!!!! — sound huge and fantastical. But money, at least when NBA players are involved, is always overrated.

For instance, Javaris Crittendon is making $1.47 million this season. I just did the math (very carefully), and to a person who makes $1.4 million a year, the amount of $25,000 is like $850 to a person who makes $50,000 a year. That’s still a lot of money, yes. But look at Gilbert, who is set to make $16,192,080 this season. To Gilbert, the $25,000 amount is the equivalent of $77 to someone who makes $50,000 a year. Not exactly the kind of debt that would seem to make someone desperate to resort to gun violence to make it go away.

What will happen with Gilbert? I think it’s important to remember that the legal system has to run its course before the NBA will make any sort of ruling. And that could take a while.

• In other news, a few weeks ago I stumbled upon that rap song from Zaza Pachulia. In that post, I mentioned that Joe Smith was going to email me a few tracks to post here at SLAMonline.

Well, he did. For a bit of background, I’ve been told by numerous NBA players the last few years that Joe Smith is the best rapper in the NBA. He goes by the name of Joe Beast, and he released an album last year while playing with Cleveland.

This year, soon after signing with the Hawks, Joe wrote and recorded a song called “V.I.C.T.O.R.Y.,” which is played at Philips Arena this season every time the Hawks run onto the court. It’s a great arena song, heavy on the bass and beats, and Joe manages to mention everyone’s name. (No brainer: rhyming “Teague” with “League.”)

Joe sent me a copy of the track, which you can listen to below. Joe noted that it’s their “team anthem.” And Joe added, “Thanks for allowing me the opportunity to get it heard on another outlet other than Phillips Arena. Hope you like it!!!”

Over the weekend, I had the pretty incredible opportunity of embedding with the Atlanta Hawks for a feature in the next issue of SLAM. I spent 24 hours with the team, from taking their charter flight with them on Friday night from Atlanta to Dallas, to staying in the team hotel, to attending the morning breakfast meeting in its entirety, to sitting in for Coach Woodson’s pregame pep talk and hearing his postgame remarks, then flying back to Atlanta late at night on the Hawks’ charter.

It was a remarkable trip, and I was able to see first-hand things I’ve wondered about for ages. And I should say here a very big thank you to Coach Woodson for opening his team up to me; he never asked me not to write anything or go anywhere. It was a very, very interesting trip, and I’m going to try hard not to talk much about it until the next issue of SLAM drops. Despite getting endless stories from the trip.

(For instance, a sentence I never thought I’d hear Mike Woodson say, but I undeniably did hear him say this: “Do the stanky leg!” Context will be presented in the next SLAM.)

Even though I was only around for the team for about a day, I took about 20 pages of notes, so I’ll probably spend most the week whittling that stuff down into a more manageable few thousand words.

But one thing I thought was funny…

During the pregame time on Saturday night in Dallas, I was in the locker room talking with Joe Smith. I’ve had about a dozen NBA players tell me independently of each other that Joe Smith is the best rapper in the NBA, but I’d never really talked to him about it.

So Saturday night, maybe an hour before tipoff, I was sitting in the locker room observing, and Joe Smith and I started talking about his love for hip-hop. (Joe is supposedly going to email me some tracks to post here, eventually.)

Zaza Pachulia was sitting nearby, and he walked over to me and Joe and said to me, “You know I recorded a rap song, too, right?” He turned to Joe, “Remember I played it for you in Milwaukee?” he asked, referring to when both Joe and Zaza played for the Bucks back on 2004-05. Joe said that he did remember that.

“Wait, wait,” I said. Now, with Zaza, not much surprises me. The dude is a renaissance man. He’s always been fashion-forward and interested in continental things. He’s just as comfortable talking about AC Milan as he is talking about food — he recently bought an Atlanta restaurant which will have a big re-launch in January.

But rap?

“Yeah, I was on a rap song,” Zaza confirmed.

Did you write it?

“No, someone else wrote it, I just performed it.”

Was it in English?

“No, it was in Georgian.” (Zaza is from the country Georgia in Eurasia.)

Was it you by yourself?

“No, I was with a rapper from home. I just rapped a verse.”

At this point my head was spinning. How did I not know anything about this? So you really had your own rap song?

“Yeah man. You know Tupac? I’m Z-Pac!” And then Zaza turned and went out to the court to warm up.

Hmm, I thought. Learn something new every day.

I made a note to ask Zaza later about getting a copy of the song, but I never had a chance.

Then late last night, as I was going through and transcribing my notes, I saw my note about Zaza’s rap career, so I looked it up online. And I found it. No idea what they’re rapping about, but Zaza comes in around the 1 minute mark and goes for an impressive time.

The Hawks become the 10th team to give the veteran Smith a job: “Joe Smith has spent the past month being wooed by the Hawks, and Tuesday night all the team’s hard work paid off. Smith signed a one-year deal Tuesday for the veteran’s minimum salary, approximately $1.3 million, rounding out the team’s frontcourt rotation with the veteran big man they’ve searched for all summer.”

Former No. one draft pick Joe Smith has agreed to a one-year deal with the Atlanta Hawks, according to a report. After playing parts of the past two season for Cleveland, Smith will make the vet’s minimum this year in Atlanta. With career averages of 11.6 ppg and 6.7 rpg and ’08-09 averages of 6.6 and 4.6, Smith is most well-known for costing Minnesota multiple draft picks after David Stern caught the Wolves offering him an illegal deal. The Hawks will be his 10th team in 14 seasons.

The veteran big man will reportedly be making a visit to the city to see what it has to offer: “Who said the Hawks were done chasing big men this summer? You didn’t hear it around these parts, at least not officially (from me). Barring a last minute change of plans, veteran big man Joe Smith is scheduled to visit town on Wednesday, according to two of my best spies. And the Hawks are not out of the running for Ben Wallace, who has yet to agree to terms with Detroit (though, one of my best spies up north insists that it’s just a matter of time before Wallace returns to the Pistons).”

]]>http://www.slamonline.com/nba/joe-smith-to-atl/feed/14Joe Smith Would Like to Sing You a Songhttp://www.slamonline.com/nba/joe-smith-would-like-to-sing-you-a-song/
http://www.slamonline.com/nba/joe-smith-would-like-to-sing-you-a-song/#commentsMon, 20 Apr 2009 14:30:00 +0000http://slamonline.com/online/?p=30664

He’s an artist, y’know: “About 90 minutes of writing Wednesday, a few hours in a studio Thursday, and the Cavaliers had a new Playoff Anthem in time for Game 1 — courtesy of Joe Beast. That would be Joe Smith for those unfamiliar with the musical stylings of the Cavaliers’ veteran power forward. Smith, who released a mix tape in December called ‘The Beginning’ under his rapping pseudonym and basketball nickname, Joe Beast, is taking public his love of music and rapping with his playoff song and recent CD. And yes, Smith knows what you’re thinking, but he thinks you’re wrong. ‘Another athlete rappin’?’ he spits out on ‘Intro’ on his CD. ‘What?’ NBA players and rap go together like bacon and eggs, but he swears he’s no Kobe Bryant, no Shaquille O’Neal, no Tony Parker, no Ron Artest. ‘I’m not like the rest though, not like them,’ Smith raps. ‘I put my heart in this. I put my soul in this. So before you classify me with the rest — don’t do it. I want you to be open-minded.'”

Back to his old stomping grounds: “Over the past several years, the Cavaliers have made pitches to numerous midseason free agents in the hope they would help in a playoff run. For one reason or another, the fit wasn’t right or the Cavs weren’t as attractive as another suitor. Often, some of their rivals were able to land help that eventually made a difference. This season, however, lots of things have been different. Soon, Joe Smith will be one of the examples. Smith and the Cavs agreed to the terms on a one-year contract Tuesday. He is expected to clear waivers Wednesday and then make it official.”

‘Tis the choice he must make: “[Joe] Smith likely will clear the NBA waiver system Wednesday morning. At that time, the Cavs are expected to offer him a formal contract, and multiple league sources have said it is Smith’s plan to accept and join the Cavs as soon as possible. The team may have some talks with former Cav Drew Gooden, who has equal high regard in the team locker room. Smith’s defensive ability and Gooden’s health — he’s been battling a groin injury since January and may need surgery to repair a sports hernia after the season — are playing into the decision. There have been some reports that Gooden may interest the San Antonio Spurs.”

The NBA’s economic situation being what it is these days, these types of cost-cutting moves are to be expected. And contenders are licking their chops at the possibility of acquiring guys like the newly-freed Joe Smith and Drew Gooden.

Drew Gooden’s Sacramento stay is over. The forward acquired Feb. 18 in a six-player trade with Chicago agreed to a buyout from the Kings and was waived Sunday night. The move was yet another financially motivated decision by the Kings, who are believed to have saved $2 million while allowing Gooden to possibly join a playoff contender.

[…]

For the second consecutive year, Joe Smith might be joining Cleveland at mid-season to try and help the Cavaliers make a run at an NBA championship. The Thunder waived Smith on Sunday — or bought out his contract — hours before the deadline in which teams must have a player on the roster to be eligible for the playoffs…“This was a very sound basketball and business decision,” Presti said. “Moving forward, Joe’s opportunity on the floor was limited with some of the other guys on the roster. This also gives us roster flexibility.”

Interestingly enough, the Cavs must choose between the two bigs, both of whom used to ply their trade in Cleveland. It is Smith, though, who’s expected to join Team LeBron later this week.